Some Helpful Perspective
by TheGirlWithFarTooManyIdeas
Summary: Kira knew he shouldn't have tempted fate when he was preparing to get married after the second Valentine War, looking at a peaceful future. He might not have ended up in another dimension during an interstellar travel accident otherwise. Oh well, he's just going to have to throw a wrench in this Feddie/Vagan conflict - by taking Vagan to a different Earth!


**Some Helpful Perspective**

 _ **Me: Welcome to more random ideas, mostly fluff and world building and altering canon that makes me sad into something much happier. Featuring Kira as constantly exasperated Provider of Third Options, Athrun as the Constantly Worried and Somewhat Exasperated fiancee, Zeheart as a highly confused child soldier who's just discovering that Third Options Are a Thing, poor Asemu as just Constantly Confused period, Flit as cashing his paycheck as Patrick Zala 2.0, and a whole lot of interdimensional shenanigans.**_

 _ **On, and just briefly - Stella didn't die, Shinn didn't go around the bend, and Djibril was too incompetent to fire the Requiem in time - so most of the PLANTs are still in working order.**_

 **Disclaimer: I do not own the Gundam Franchise in any capacity. Seriously, I don't even have a single model toy, even though I want one.**

 **Part 1: Kira finds trouble**

He probably should have seen this coming, though there was no practical, real world reason to fear it. After all, ZAFT was reformed (again) the Earth Alliance was turning into something resembling a civil government (at long last) he had built bridges with Shinn Asuka (which had been both harder and easier than he had expected) Lunamaria Hawke (once she'd forgiven him for what happened to Commander Henie) and Captain Tristan. LOGOs was mostly buried (Durandal did one thing right, if nothing else), Orb would rebuild (and the Serians were gone, thank god), and peace was finally – _finally –_ looking like a semi-permanent thing. And it only took a couple decades.

Athrun had asked him – had finally _asked_ him. He'd been so meteorically happy he probably should have expected _something_ to go wrong, because what had gone right for him ever since he fell into that stupid Gundam?

What was the warning phrase? About tempting fate? "It's only one last job' – don't expect to come back from it?'" He really needed to punch whoever came up with that. Didn't evoking the possibility of something going wrong also count as tempting fate?

"THERE ARE NO REGISTERED COLONIES IN THIS SYSTEM."

"And I'm telling you, that's not possible! If we're in the bloody milky way galaxy, there should be _something_ familiar unless the PLANTs have just _poofed out of existence!_ "

Commander Kira Yamato – hero of Jachin Due, Orb and Requiem - was pointedly _not_ throwing a tantrum like he was ten years old.

Really. He wasn't.

He was behaving just as calmly and rationally as when he had been pulled away from the wedding planning – _his wedding –_ to test drive a new AI system. He really bloody hated Hibiki sometimes; being the ultimate coordinator had saved him from death twice but it got him into just as many bad situations if not more. If he hadn't been so damn special, the Morganrate tech heads wouldn't have kept begging for a consultation, he wouldn't have flown the Strike Freedom with the new AI and transportation system and he wouldn't be _in_ this situation!

...Whatever this situation _was_.

"THE FUSION REACTOR'S IMPLOSION CREATED A DIMENSIONAL TRANSLATION. THIS IS NOT THE MILKY WAY GALAXY."

Kira stared blankly at the screen, where the blue sphere with a gold centre was blinking oh so innocently at him. "What," He said flatly. He gestured mildly to the right, where in the distance he could see Mars.

"NOT _YOUR_ MILKY WAY GALAXY."

Yup. He definitely should have stayed in bed this morning. He should have told Cagalli he wasn't available and to bring the whole power of the Chief Representative down on that. God, _why him_? Why _now,_ when he was finally grasping the chance to be happy?

" _What?!_ "

 **~line break~**

So. Kira had been yanked from his peaceful life in a neutral colony to the midst of a war zone. He had defeated six ZAFT aces in his first year behind the controls of a mobile suit – granted, it was a super prototype mobile suit. He'd fought a madman trying to wipe out humanity while dodging a nuclear laser meant to rend a planet apart. He'd nearly died twice, both times at the hands of people who he'd come to love and be friends with, respectively. He'd seen his mentor seemingly come back from the dead as a criminal amnesiac.

But the dragon shaped mobile suits that were opening fire on him? That was new. It was so new he'd gawked at them for several seconds before their attacks registered in his brain.

Kira grunted, threw the Strike Freedom in a spin and deployed his DRAGOONS. He hadn't tuned his radio to the enemy chatter – being constantly, near fatally distracted by Rau le Creuset's rambling in the first war had warned him off doing that – but the way the machines froze up and retreated back suggested they had either never seen the weapon before, or knew to fear them. Kira launched himself forward in response, firing his rifle. There were about fifteen of these mobile suits; the radar pointed to a mothership being several clicks away. Not close enough to lend support at the moment, but it seemed to be the only life in the general vicinity.

So. He was already off to a _great_ start.

Kira could only assume by the fact they had opened fire without hailing him was that he had just stumbled upon some sort of conflict. Since his do gooder nature had apparently gotten him dropkicked into some sort of alternate dimension, he couldn't rule it out as much as he wanted to whine in frustration at the mere idea of this happening to him once _again_.

So. He has no idea what sort of environment he's in. He's being attacked; the mobile suits shooting to kill rather than disable, and there were no familiar colonies...anywhere. The only way he was going to get some sort of explanation...was from these people. Who, again, were _shooting_ at him.

Great. Another challenge for the _mighty_ ultimate coordinator. God damn you, Hibiki, may you rot in hell forced to listen to Crazy Frog on an endless loop!

(You could always tell when Kira was really and truly upset, because he'd start wishing gruesome harm on people. He almost always took it back when he calmed down.)

Kira deployed the wave shields, allowing the shots to harmlessly splatter against them while speaking to the AI. That actually caused his opponents to freeze and stop shooting at him. Okay, apparently _all_ his weapons were new here.

Oh boy. So no hiding under the radar. So much for that faint hope.

"Siri, I need you to scan those mobile suits." Kira pulled down the keypad and adjusted the OS, rebooting it and fixing the weapons calibration from standby mode. "Where are the cockpits? The weapons? Give me a general rundown, quickly!"

"AFFIRMATIVE."

Well, Kira thought with a dull smile as his viewscreens lit up further, at least he'd be able to vogue for the AI's effectiveness, once he dealt with...whatever this was. A couple seconds later and Siri had finished hacking, and streamed the information while Kira nimbly dodged between two of the dragon mobile suits. Kira's eyes flicked between the various diagrams.

"Va...gan...?" He murmured, eyeing the grey images. "...Cockpit's in the head, huh?" Memories of the many, many, _many_ mobile suit heads he'd slagged flashed across his mind. He shuddered violently. _Dodged that bullet_. "Thanks Siri."

"YOU ARE WELCOME." So it had basic conversational capabilities too? That goodness.

Shaking his head slightly, Kira tapped his comm system and began cycling through frequencies in search of the start of an explanation to this situation.

 **~line break~**

Kira leaned back in his seat, turning autopilot over to Siri for a moment (using a star map he'd hacked out of the mother ship he was still hiding from), closing his eyes and sighing. He was following the combat ship to a colony called Solon; thank god for the dispersal shells that were hiding his signature from them or else he would have had to attack the ship directly. Perhaps they chalked it up to yet another ability of his 'Gundam'. He'd been surprised to hear the term at first, since he'd been the one to come up with it in his world. Though that was irrelevant – right now he just wanted to go to some relatively quiet place and get his bearings.

The mobile suits hadn't been hard to defeat – they were a cut far above most EA grunts from his past (quantity did _not_ have a quality of its own when your soldiers couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if they were standing inside it), but his advantages were overwhelming. He'd left the bodies as debris while sparing each cockpit, as per usual – yet he couldn't help but feel a little guilty, because the radio chatter he'd managed to connect to had been full of the terrified cries of his 'opponents'. They had assumed his Gundam was some final evolution of the Federation super weapon, held back until it could do the most damage.

Hopefully the fact he'd left them all alive would lead them to believe otherwise, though he wasn't holding his breath. For all it looked angelic, Strike Freedom was a terrifying enemy. It was the pinnacle of the mobile suit.

"What a complete mess," he said with feeling.

From what he could extrapolate of this universe he had stumbled into, the The Earth Federation Forces (basically what the Earth Alliance might have been, if they'd consisted of every country on the planet and had possessed some space presence) had attempted to colonize Mars some 170 years ago. However, when the planet proved to be hostile to human life (which felt like an understatement, given what he'd read on the effect Mars Rays had on your body after prolonged exposure) the Federation in its infinite wisdom...simply pulled anchor and left, abandoning several million people to die horrible deaths. Somehow these people – now called the Vagans – managed to eek out and survive their awful conditions, seething for years until they struck back against the Federation again. They hid their identity and largely preformed guerrilla attacks, both on colonies and cargo trains so they could gather more supplies and leave damage in their wake. They'd been so successful Federation citizens had assumed they were aliens of some sort – because Federation bureaucracy had completely covered up all knowledge of the Mars Settlement Plan. (probably because they knew people wouldn't have gone along with it. Idiots.) The Vagans enjoyed great success in this, leaving several destroyed colonies in their wake right up until the attack on Colony Nora. While it was destroyed, there was one captain who lead an off the book offensive against them that accumulated in the Battle of Ambat. (or, more worryingly as it was referred to, the 'War of Bat Extermination'.) That was the peak of the initial rise of Flit Asuno; a young Federation citizen and creator of the Gundam; a super prototype mobile suit that eerily resembled a stripped down Strike – right down to the multiple configurations; such as Titus and Spallow (which Kira directly compared to the Launcher and Sword packs...though Titus looked rather goofy for a weapon of great destruction.) After that, there was a lull in the fighting for a few years before it picked up in earnest. Flit, now a Federation Admiral, was leading the renewed hostility against the Vagans and the war, which was picking up speed after a history-repeating attack on Tordia (though this colony avoided destruction – the Vagan had dialed that back somewhat after loosing at Ambat), which had occurred just a couple weeks ago. A second Gundam had been constructed and debuted – though apparently it was struggling against the opposite number created by the Vagan – the Zeydra. However, when not faced with the red mobile suit its performance surpassed the original's in many ways.

"So the entire known universe is entangled with a war spurred by bitterness, incompetence and loss," Kira summarized, staring at the data logs in front of them. "And there's no middle ground at all? No neutral zone? No pirates or quiet places I might be able to keep a lower profile."

"THE ONLY NEUTRAL COLONY IN THE SYSTEM IS MINSRY," Siri reported after a lengthy scan. "AND THEIR ABILITY TO MAINTAIN THAT STATUS IS THANKS TO CIVIL CONTRACTS WITH BOTH SIDES."

"So I couldn't park my Gundam there and hide out because the Federation and Vagan would both ask for me to be turned over," Kira said. He hit his head against the back of his seat in frustration. "It's like...it's like if the Bloody Valentine war hadn't had access to any super weapons – no N-Jammers, no nukes, no Genesis. Reducing it to a long grudge match."

"THERE ARE SOME SIMILARITIES. LARGELY IN THE BASIC STRUCTURE." Siri paused. "SO YOU DO NOT INTEND TO CONTACT THE FEDERATION? THEY ARE THE SIDE MORE LIKELY TO HAVE ACCESS TO THE MATERIALS NECESSARY TO ENSURE OUR RETURN TO THE HOME DIMENSION."

Kira blew out a long breath. "Siri, they're going to want a price for help. And with Strike Freedom, they're either going to want the blueprints, or more likely, they're going to want me to join up and fight in the war."

"CLARIFY. YOU HAVE FOUGHT SIMILAR WARS IN YOUR HISTORY. AS A MERCENARY YOU WOULD HAVE MORE SAY IN WHAT YOU CHOOSE TO INVOLVE YOURSELF IN AND YOU WOULD GET WHAT YOU NEEDED. YET SOMETHING MAKES YOU HESISTATE?" Siri inquired.

Kira shook his head. "Are you kidding me Siri? The Federation lies to its citizens constantly, covers up dangerous truths, they left millions to die and created their own enemy. I don't trust them and I don't care to fight their battles for them. They think they're victims but they remind me way too much of the Earth Alliance for me to be comfortable working under them."

He clasped his hands together. "To be honest my instinctive sympathy is with Vagan; the only thing stopping me from hailing that ship is their tendencies to attack civilian colonies."

Siri paused. "SO FAR YOU HAVE ONLY BEEN EXPOSED TO DATA. PERHAPS A MORE IN DEPTH ANALYSIS OF THE HUMAN ELEMENT COULD HELP YOU COME TO A DECISION? WE ARE UNLIKELY TO BE ABLE TO RETURN WITHOUT CONSIDERABLE ASSISTANCE."

"That's why we're going to Solon," Kira responded, straightening up as the colony finally came into view. It looked really weird to him; he was used to the hourglass design of the PLANTs and knew their safety features inside out. "Hopefully I can make some sense out of it. And since they'll see me going in, I can expect to run into some people from both sides..."

He grasped the control bars. "Disengage autopilot, Siri. I can take it from here. Just keep up the particle dispersal until we're inside."

"UNDERSTOOD."

Peeling away from the shadow of the Vagan carrier, Kira hit the Strike Freedom's engine and blasted forward towards the colony entrance. He nimbly dodged between a couple of scouts – the Adele, if he remembered correctly, mass produced variants of the original Gundam's basic design. The equivalent of Strike Daggers. It seemed his advantage was even higher against them than it was against Vagan...

...That did beg the question of how that lost colony, despite struggling in literally every other survival department, had such a powerful and effective military force.

Kira shook his head. While his heart raged against declaring such a tragic war like this 'not his problem', he wasn't comfortable with the options presented to him so far. Though if it came to technological superiority, it was possible Vagan may be of more assistance than the Federation...if he could convince them to stop attempting to shoot his head off.

Maybe someone he'd meet here could change his mind...maybe.

Kira flew through the vents of the colony, avoiding the entrance guards and slipping between the inside of the colony and its outer shell, careful not to jostle anything as he went. He wouldn't want a repeat of Heliopolis especially given his circumstances. He slowed down and opened his radio on every frequency so he could keep an ear on the general chatter.

" _strzt -_ -blasted right past me, could barely see-"

"- possible – nothing we have moves that fast -"

" - some image?-"

Kira located an entrance through the colony 'sky' and dropped through it. _No point in trying to hide,_ he thought dismally. _That never works out for me._ He flashed back, for a moment, to the attack on the orphanage where he and Lacus had been trying to keep away from the politics of their world. Athrun hadn't really been in favour of that, though he'd never argued it. He believed they had to be a part of the process of peace, though he later confessed to Kira that his guilt over his connection to his father had left him wanting to do everything he could.

Thinking about Athrun made Kira's heart hurt. He desperately wanted his crimson knight by his side; they were unstoppable when they fought together. Athrun would debate with him what to do, offer his opinions and more importantly his _support_. Kira really didn't want to confront yet another war without him...not when they, in two months, would finally pledge their lives to each other...

"If I miss my wedding," Kira muttered as he descended towards the ground, "because bloody Morganrate wanted me to test drive something, I'm going to kill a man. I swear it."

 **~Line Break~**

He didn't have to wait long.

In fairness, he did end up tangling with a few Vagan suits who'd been stationed inside the colony – arms dealing on the side. Kira had seen that before; after all, Rondo Ghina Sahaku was the reason he'd ever been within spitting distance of the Strike. Obviously news of him had spread quickly through their forces. Only two had attacked him, the others being smart enough to stay back. Kira took care of them in a second before hailing their companions.

"I am not a Federation Forces soldier." He said. "You'll notice I've been fighting solely in self defence, which isn't the typical strategy of one of Flit Asuno's foot soldiers. If you stop shooting at me – and allow me access to the nearest bar – I have no intention of causing you any more trouble at the moment."

Naturally the other pilot didn't know what to make of that. "How could you have a Gundam if you aren't part of the Federation?" He asked, his voice a mixture of fear (the dragoons tore the two suits apart in moments, the SF itself had stood in place the entire time. He knew they weren't any threat to this person) and uncertainty.

Kira laughed dryly and humorlessly. "Funny story," He said, as if there was anything funny about his history. "And a long one, too. I think you can take my word for it for now, because you'll notice I haven't killed a single person who engaged me – though they were trying to kill _me_. I haven't taken it personally, given what's going on around here, but shoot at me _now_ and I will be very put out. All I want is red wine – my fiance isn't here to frown disapprovingly at me, and I _really_ need it."

There was a solid minute of silence on the radio as the two remaining pilots processed his comically small demand (and implicit threat. He was getting better at those.) "I...suppose that is acceptable," the pilot acquiesced.

Now, Kira wasn't daft – he knew that his presence was being reported to both sides of the spectrum by the people he was talking to. That was fine, was what he wanted. It was perspective he needed. "Lovely. Where's the nearest bar?"

It was probably the fear of god he'd put in his would be opponents that earned him such quick complicity. Kira disembarked the Strike Freedom (locking the OS on the way out, not that anyone here would have been able to make heads or tails out of it anyway – it was programmed by him personally, after all) and walked casually into the bar. He met his first Vagan in person there – the same pilot he'd talked to earlier. The man looked him over, surprised and fearful, before giving him a card and bolting.

Kira sighed. Being feared went against his preferences. And he couldn't drink TOO heavily if he wanted to get a clear headed impression of the people he was dealing with. God damn it all...

 **~Line Break~**

Zeheart gazed silently up at the unknown Gundam. He was half tempted to shade his gaze; the light glancing off the machine gave it an almost painful brilliance. "Whoever designed this thing was going for a certain image," He said, mostly to himself. "Even Flit Asuno's Gundam wasn't quite so...blatant."

Visually, the Gundam was stunning. The design was heavily seraphic; with eight blue wings, parts of which doubled as those remote weapons the pilot had used at Solon tech, being the most obvious. The unknown was the same height as the Gundam AGE-2 if not slightly bigger, and the head was similar in design, but the Unknown was so much more elegant looking...if you ignored the seven dual canons that rested at the hips, near the cockpit, and just above the leg joints. And aside from _them_ , it had two hand held rifles and two beam sabres. It was the most heavily armed suit Zeheart had ever seen, including his own. The paint job was largely silver with some black near the cockpit and shoulders, with scatters of red around the helmet and chest plate. It was...very beautiful, really. It evoked the look of a guardian angel, a protector.

Daz hadn't been happy that he was here by himself, but Zeheart felt it was necessary. Solon was still technically Federation space, and there was no need to break the illusion just yet. Besides, the discussion he'd been told of involving the strange pilot of the machine left him feeling it was safe.

The fact that the suit had appeared, seemingly out of the ether, helped. Despite the strong resemblance to Flit's Gundam (and the fact that the AGE system had never, ever been leaked – the Asuno patriarch would sooner let FE personal die than give up any of his data), the fact that it was alone and completely without a ship to return to had been a hint that something wasn't right about it.

The second hint had been the way it fought. Zeheart -knew- that the pilot could have simply torn through the platoon sent to attack him and sunk the warship with contemptible ease – the capability and sheer overwhelming firepower the Gundam possessed would have made such a thing trivial. And yet the pilot had deliberately gone for disabling attacks.

He wasn't sure what was more frightening, conceptually. Panic had certainly spread quickly throughout the men who had seen the footage, which was why he'd told Daz to keep it quiet. The soldiers still stationed here, despite being spared, were almost as jumpy as those in an interment camp, and couldn't point him towards the cipher fast enough.

Cautiously, Zeheart closed his eyes and reached out with his sense. The X Rounder gene didn't just provide battle precognition, but granted mid level psychic/empathetic abilities. That was how the Vagan soldiers drew out the full potential of their suits. Zeheart wouldn't be able to hijack a foreign suit with his abilities alone – so far, there hadn't been an X Rounder alive strong enough to do so – but he could get a good picture of where it came from and, to some extent, its history.

Zeheart felt the gentle pulse of his power and closed his eyes, placing one hand on the leg of the unknown Gundam. Heat seemed to surge within it, something raw and overwhelming. He wasn't easily intimidated, and began to search...

...It was like being pulled underwater. Zeheart gasped as thousands of images and impressions assaulted him. A colony exploding, a white and red ship fleeing through space. The spectre of a blue haired boy, superimposed on a monitor, a mixture of anger, confusion and desolation marring his voice and expression. A carrier exploding in the atmosphere of Earth. Fighting in a desert, meeting his sister, meeting the Tiger ( _but he didn't want to put another face to the enemy, it made everything so much worse)._ An anti ship sword cutting straight through a black-and-red Gundam in half, sickening horror mingling with the 'victory'. ( _I didn't mean to-_ ). A fighter jet exploding, a fight to the death, waking up in a bed next to a herald of peace ( _god why did it have to happen like this, Athrun-)_ returning to the ocean moments before it was engulfed in a maelstrom of destruction. Leaving an island country, the only save haven, for space as the space jump drives dissolved into fire. Straining, struggling, trying to protect hour glass colonies from nukes and prevent the firing of a horrific laser – Zeheart felt the heat of the blueish blast of concentrated radiation as if it were present in his reality in that moment – fighting to the death with a madman laughing about how humanity was doomed. ( _humanity is worth saving, I believe that. Even now, I believe that.)_ Resting. ( _It feels like years since I've just lain down...)_ Two years of silence. Not an end. Not really. Just a breather. ( _I wanted it to be the end.)_

There was more. The ruins of a colony falling like rain upon the earth. Everyone rearming. He wanted to stay out of it, but a strike team from the colonies put paid to those hopes. Trying to mitigate casualties, things spinning out of control, his sister usurped by a fool and an arrogant imperialist. ( _She decided to marry Serian because they brought her father up a few times? Goddamn it Cagalli!)_ The blue haired boy was back, worry and grim determination written across his face as they discussed what to do. ( _Athrun not everything's your fault, let me go with you at least-)_ Another boy, black haired and red eyes, quiet one moment, possessed with mad rage and despair the next. ( _I didn't do enough, his family died the day I was fighting there, if I had been better if I hadn't been tied up with those Gundams I could have helped, he wouldn't have become this broken shell, my fault-)_ Conflict with another ship with the same objective. _(I'd rather work with them, but someone with ZAFT contacts sent assassins after me, Lacus and Cagalli. I just can't.)_ Nearly dying again. Upgrading to this mobile suit, getting in contact with his friend (friend?) again. Taking back Orb. Defending it. The black haired boy is difficult to convince. Fights him to a draw ( _he's really good...almost as good as me, even though I'm the ultimate coordinator.)_ and lets Athrun talk to him. It helps a bit – there's a flicker of clarity in those red eyes, something beneath the anger and desperation, but Djibril gets away _(he's already murdered thousands, how could I let him get away-)._ Contact the Minerva, form an alliance to go after him. The Requiem...it took the three of them to stop it, him and the other two boys, and they barely made it in time. Then it's the PLANTs turn. The benevolent dictator, with a soothing voice akin to Lord Ezelcant's, reveals his plan to prevent further war and tragedy. Genetic predestination. Even though he defeated the army, put down the second GENISIS, he wonders if the man might have been right-

Zeheart gasped and pulled himself from the memories, staggering and leaning against the Gundam's leg. His head was swimming. That had been a mistake.

 _What_ was _all of that?_

It took him a couple of minutes to be able to stand steady again to think clearly. Shaking his head, more confused (and uneasy, uncertain – not emotions he welcomed, largely because he associated them with _him_ , who was still persistently in his thoughts) than ever, Zeheart straightened and turned his gaze towards the bar.

It was empty except for one patron, who was sitting in a seat near the window, pouring himself a drink.

 _He's been waiting..._

Shaking his head, Zeheart crossed the street and into the bar.

The young man raised his head, about to say something – then he stalled, violet eyes widening in surprise. _Athrun?,_ he mouthed out, before blinking and quickly rearranging his expression. "Hello," He said quietly. "I'm surprised. I was kind of expecting the Federation to get here first."

"They're not far away," Zeheart noted. It was true; the Diva was heading for Solon as they spoke. Whether it was a stop for provisions or if they knew about the manufacturing company's dual alliance wasn't obvious...yet. Though Zeheart had already warned the work personal that it was likely the latter. They could afford to loose the plant, but the fewer sympathizers they lost, the better.

"I see." The young man took a drink. Zeheart realized with a start that he really resembled _him_. Perhaps not in colouring – his hair was brown and cut short near his jawline, his eyes violet and deeply haunted under their companionable directness – but his posture, his smile...it spoke of an easy friendliness, sympathy and passion. Everything he'd liked in _him,_ everything that _distracted_ him, everything that made him feel _alive_. What had been cruelly dangled in front of him, making him wonder what could have been had his people not been left to die...Sure, this person was more tempered – had experienced more at this point in his life – but it...it really brought him back...

 _Damn it. Why do you have to haunt me, Asemu?_

"Who are you?" He asked after a moment to collect himself. He blamed the surge of memories for how disoriented he felt.

"Kira. Kira Yamato." The young man said with a slight smile. "I'm a stranger in these parts. And you? What should I call you?"

"Zeheart Gallete." Kira nodded and offered him a glass. "I don't usually drink..." He hesitated, then said, "...but frankly, it's been that sort of month."

 _For numerous reasons._ Blonde hair and blue eyes flash briefly behind his eyelids.

Kira smiled wanly, and poured. "I know the feeling." He sat back slightly and regarded Zeheart for a moment. "Are you in charge?" He asked. "You're a little young."

"So are you," Zeheart responded, gesturing at the silver and white jacket the other boy was wearing. His rank read Lieutenant Colonel.

"True," Kira admitted, "though it's mostly because I directly work for the Princess and Chief Representative. Otherwise I'm a regular soldier...when I have to be one." His eyes closed for a moment, before opening again, contrition visible. "I'm sorry about causing a ruckus. If it were up to me, I would have gone straight to Minsry until I finished repairs, but obviously my unit gave mixed signals."

Zeheart snorted. What an absurd thing for a bystander who'd been caught up in a firefight to say. "Please...if anyone should apologize, it's me – I am the fleet commander, after all. I didn't believe it was possible for a non-Federation Gundam to exist." He eyed the younger man, some of the impressions/memories he'd gotten from the machine crossing his mind's eye. "However...really, how _did_ you come across that machine, if it wasn't born from the Asuno's AGE system?"

Kira looked contemplative. "I'm...not sure how to explain myself. My story is so unbelievable that I wouldn't blame you for struggling to accept it, even though I have some proof with me."

"I wouldn't say that..." Zeheart responded slowly. "I got some strong impressions from your machine. But what I saw doesn't match up with what I know to be real. For one thing...I've never seen any colonies constructed in that strange hourglass shape."

The stranger's eyes widened. "You... _saw_? I'm not sure I understand. How is that possible?"

Zeheart frowned slightly. "I'm the strongest X Rounder in the forces, aside from Lord Ezelcant himself. There are a lot of memories and impressions attached to that machine you fly...I haven't seen everything – not half of it – but enough to know something's out of the ordinary."

"X Rounder?" Kira echoed. "You have me at a disadvantage. Is that some sort of offshoot of the Coordinator program?"

 _Coordinator._ Zeheart had sensed the word among the memory fragments, along with Yamato's complex feelings towards it. However, he still didn't fully understand what it meant. "For now, let's say it assures me there's something very foreign about you. Please, explain away."

So Kira told him. About another time and place, another Earth and another set of colonies. Another war...two wars, in truth, both shorter than the one Zeheart had always known but no less bloody. Coordinators and Naturals. Coordinators, who didn't possess the precognitive powers that Zeheart prized and relied on, but did have physical and mental superiority over the unmodified human in every way – or, so some believed. Part way through his explanation, Kira brought up his new AI companion, which displayed data archives relevant to what he was explaining. The faster-than-light travel engine, created in hopes of allowing the possibility of interstellar colonies...the 'glitch' that landed Yamato here. He got the names of those two other boys across the explanation – Athrun Zala and Shinn Asuka (Hawke, technically, since he'd been adopted into a close comrade's family. However, he'd apparently decided to keep his last name). While Kira had glossed over the wars short of specifics (and only then because Zeheart had inquired after it,) he did hear something that puzzled him.

"...Shinn was released from psychiatric care; he's much more functional than he was a year ago, but he wasn't in any condition to pilot a mobile suit without triggering, so that left just _me_. Fool that I am, I agreed, even though I was off duty." Kira was visibly irritated at the thought.

"You're calling him Shinn," Zeheart noted. When Yamato gave him a puzzled look, he elaborated, "You said that Asuka would have killed you earlier in the conflict, had it not been for reflex and sheer luck. Yet you seem to hold him no ill will, since you refer to him by his first name. Why?"

"...Why not?" Kira asked in return, brow furrowing. "The war is over...and he was always fragile. I...did something – had to do something - he couldn't cope with. It was as much my fault as his."

"Was it that easy?" Zeheart honestly wasn't sure what to make of that. It seemed...so odd, to take that view, especially compared to most Federation soldiers he'd come across.

Kira bit his lip. "I'm not sure I would say it was _easy_. But forgiveness isn't something that's earned. It's given. And...and if we want things to get better – if we want to break the endless cycle of revenge and anger – we have to be willing to give it."

He then gave Zeheart a pointed look. "Besides...what good would holding on to those feelings do me? I'd have to carry that memory around with me forever, instead of letting it scar over and fade. It wouldn't change the fact that it happened, no more than Shinn's anger could turn back time and rescue his family. It's just so pointless to stay bitter and vengeful when doing so would give me nothing."

Zeheart hummed as if he understood, hoping to hide the uncertainty those remarks inspired. "I suppose you're right. I've never had the opportunity to offer mine." _But I did...It wouldn't have been fair to leave_ him _with that before meeting again on the battlefield..._

Kira's expression softened, becoming sympathetic again. "I understand. I remember being in that position too." There was a moment of silence.

"Why come here?" Zeheart asked eventually, unable to hide the hints of the curiosity he felt towards...well...everything about this other soldier. "I'm grateful for your restrained approach to the attacks, but why place yourself in a vulnerable role like this?"

"Vulnerable?" Kira let out a dry chuckle. "I'm not precisely defenceless outside my suit...though that's not what you're really getting at, is it?"

"It would have been trivial to approach either side and impose demands in exchange for either your assistance or lack of opposition." Zeheart said, nodding. Yamato had cut to the heart of the issue. "It would have been the quickest, and likely most reliable way of securing yourself assistance. I doubt the Federation would think making you an enemy worth the risk of refusing to give you what you wanted."

Kira closed his eyes momentarily. "That's not how I operate. Honestly...I don't like what I've seen of this universe's history. It cuts too close to Patrick Zala and Muruta Azreal's obsessive desire for obliteration." Those violet eyes flicked up to meet Zeheart's again, steady and older than his physical age. "Frankly, my instinctive sympathy _is_ with Vagan. However..." he frowned. "What purpose did destroying Angel, Nora or Tordia possibly serve?"

Ah. He'd been waiting for that to come up since Yamato gave the description of the Bloody Valentine attack. Zeheart leaned back in his seat. "Angel and Nora happened before I was born," he began cautiously; "and not many of my men speak of the attacks; it was when Vagan first achieved any real power after decades of loss and suffering. Many people were angry above all else. Many people wanted vengeance. It was shameful, I realize, though retrospect provides little comfort for anyone involved." He took another drink. "You misunderstand the events of Tordia. The events that occurred there were my extraction; nothing more. I have my soldiers on a tighter leash than my brother."

He grimaced when he thought of Decil. His brother's legendary hatred and obsession with Flit Asuno was problematic by itself. Zeheart had a feeling that he would take the appearance of Kira and the Strike Freedom – essentially even greater variants of the machine he lost to as a child – with even _less_ grace than he usually provided. _I'd have to send him to a different fleet if I can convince Yamato to come aboard,_ Zeheart thought sourly. _Decil would throw a fit...he might even try to kill him; he was unstable enough to kill a child for equally petty reasons. And it would give me an excuse to take him off the front lines._

Kira looked contemplative for a moment before asking, "What exactly do you want? To dissolve the Federation? To take control of Earth?"

Zeheart shook his head minutely. "We want to return home. We want to live like ordinary people, to not fear the deaths of our children, to be free of lingering suffering. We want to leave Mars. The Federation erased us from history after their near successful act of genocide. They would never permit us to live on any terms but theirs."

Kira leaned back in his seat, his eyes narrowed slightly."'We shall never attack another nation, never permit another nation to attack us, and to not interfere with the policies of other nations'" He quoted calmly. "...Could you live under those terms?"

"I...pardon?" Those were the words of Orb, the home of Kira's aunt, uncle and sister. The sister who was Princess and the uncle who was Chief Representative.

Wait – no. No, he couldn't be serious – what?

"I may not be a part of the political circles, but thanks to the circus with the Seiran's hostile takeover, my words have more weight than any other politician on my homeland aside from my sister. And I know I can convince her." Kira raised a hand. "I need access to a lot of high technology in order to travel the space time coil and return to my dimension of origin. The plans for the generator were meant to make colony travel possible. Here are the terms – I work for you and fight on the front lines while your people reconstruct the technology. I can bring Vagan colonies to Orb space territory as refugees _if_ and _only if_ you are willing to come in peace. Orb needs more people for jobs and commerce after the two wars and resulting damage; I guarantee people will be welcome to make their homes on Earth in exchange for their help." The brunette smiled. "How does that sound? It seems less wasteful to me than a continued decades long stalemate against the descendants of a long dead enemy."

 **End Chapter**

 ** _I realized shortly before writing this that introducing Kira/the Strike Freedom to either side of the Feddie/Vagan conflict circa the Second Age is kind if like dropping a cat in a fight between two mice - whoever the cat decides to eat wins by default. So I had to think around that, and since Kira wasn't likely to WANT to go into another war two months before he's set to get married, he would go for the obvious Third Option. And since Zeheart is generally a kind person who's never had the_ possibility _of a Third Option exist for him...yeah, Kira's got a compelling argument._**

 ** _Next time - the Diva is making a good impression of a chicken running around with its head chopped off, and Athrun Zala isn't a whole lot calmer._**

 ** _Read and Review please!_**


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